Sunday, July 7, 2013

Easy Shift Dress DIY Tutorial

As mentioned before, I really love the ease of a shift dress. The fact that it's a relatively simple sewing project is a plus! To make your own, please check out the steps after the jump (it's rather picture-heavy).

Nautical Shift Dress DIY

Difficulty: Easy

Time: ~2 hours

Pattern: Make your own from an existing shift dress!

Materials:

Fabric (I used 100% cotton - I think from Joann's, 60" wide, 2 yards) - your best fabric types will have a little bit of drape like a soft cotton, knit, or silky. Stiffer fabrics will have more of a tent-like shape.

Existing shift dress - it's best to match the sleeve length of your existing dress to your desired end result. Sleeveless, full sleeve, cap sleeve, etc. This will make a difference in your armscye (armhole) shape. I did not do this and thus had to tweak my armscye - more on that later.

Bias tape (optional)

Steps:

1. Turn your existing shift dress inside out.

2. Fold in half and tuck in the sleeves. Align the fold of your dress to the fold of your fabric.

3. Using your dress as a guide, cut the fabric. Make sure to leave extra length for the hem. Hold off on the neckline for the moment.

4. For the neckline, you can see in the picture below that the back is higher than the front. To cut the back, simply follow the dress. To cut the front, tuck the back inwards before cutting (similar to what was done with the sleeves).

5. Repeat steps 2-4 for your 2nd panel. You will then have both a front panel and back panel.

6. With the right sides of the fabric facing each other, sew the shoulders together and then down each side. Note: If unsure of fit, first baste these using a long stitch, try on the dress, and then make any adjustments (example: slimming a side, making the neckline deeper, etc.)

7. If your shift dress is sleeveless, skip to step 16.

8. To make a simple cap sleeve, you're going to cut out 2 ovals approximately 9 x 10". The easiest way to do this is to draw a 9" line and intersect it at the middle with a 10" line. Using the resulting 4 points, connect them with curved lines as shown below:

9. Fold your ovals in half length-wise to make a taco-esque shape.

10. To adjust my armscye for this sleeve type, I used a sleeveless bodice (like the one used in McCall pattern M5972) as a guide to recut the rounder / deeper opening.

11. Align the center of your curved side with the shoulder seam. Pin in place.

What the other side looks like:

12. Attach the sleeve. I tend to start at the center and then go down each side to prevent any misalignments, but please note that my method of sewing is trial and error - I have not taken any sewing classes.

13. The attached sleeve should look like the below:

14. For the parts of the armscye NOT connected to the sleeve, simply fold and stitch down:

Sorry about the fuzzy pic, but hopefully you can see the line of stitching.

Great tutorial! My daughter found some Vintage King-Sized Pillowcases at an estate sale & has begged me to make her a garment...I have been afraid to cut this one of its kind fabric w/out a pattern...Tada!

Great tutorial! My daughter found some Vintage King-Sized Pillowcases at an estate sale & has begged me to make her a garment...I have been afraid to cut this one of its kind fabric w/out a pattern...Tada!

Hi Janet Sue - your best bet is probably to take a look at a short sleeved shirt (cap sleeve if possible) that fits your child well. Measure from the shoulder seam to the sleeve length (or desired hem). Use this measurement for the short side of the oval and extend the sides proportionally.

Hi Joyce! In that case, I'd take a blouse to pattern the bodice. From there, extend the hem downwards making sure that the width allows for hip room to the dress length of your choice + 2 inches for hemming. Hope that helps!

This is great, and THANK YOU for the easy sleeve directions! I'm not really a good candidate for sleeveless dresses anymore, but it gets so hot here in the summertime that even shorter sleeves are too much-these little cap sleeves look just right! :-) I am going to give this one a whirl.